


Mnemosyne

by Night-Mare (Aoife)



Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Aria is Reborn's Daughter, Author Hit the post-Byakuran Reset Button a bit Hard, Fix-It Using Quasi-Canonical Method(s), Gen, POV Dino (Reborn), POV Third Person Limited, Post-Anime, Rated for Dino's Language, Time Travel Fix-It, Unreliable Narrator, Xanxus is Enrico's Son
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-08
Updated: 2018-01-06
Packaged: 2018-11-29 13:46:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 16,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11442138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aoife/pseuds/Night-Mare
Summary: Yuni does something just alittlebit different, and some memories are flung back far further than was originally planned.





	1. Prologue Pt 1

**Author's Note:**

> Things that will become important later:
> 
> Without a set birthdate for Byakuran, I've decided he and Tsuna share Tsuna's - the importance of Dino's age at the beginning is that his memories start to trickle back the day they're both conceived.
> 
> Xanxus is a Vongola, he's just not the Ninth's bastard; I've also deaged him slightly to match Dino and Squalo.
> 
> Aria's age is given late twenties to early thirties in the 'present' on the wiki, but women can look the same age from their late teens to their early forties, so I've deaged her to be within a year or so of Dino and Xanxus's ages because it made an idea work better.

Dino is six years and eleven months old when he wakes, panting from what he _really_ hopes is a nightmare. There’s a little girl who smiles at him with a poison sweet smile - she’s his own age, not the chibi form the Arcobaleno wear - wearing the Sky Pacifier, and then there are flashes of battles, of a Pegasus with Sky Flames for its mane and wings that nuzzled his neck, and of a little brother who looked a lot like a brunette clone of Vongola Primo.

It takes several nights before he ‘remembers’ the little girl’s name - she’s Yuni, and ‘remembers’ her murmuring in his ear just before she steps into the arms of a blonde Lightning, that she needs him to _remember everything_ for her. That she’ll _always_ be too young to change anything, and that the others all have gifts that’ll get tangled up in these memories without someone else - him - acting as a catalyst. His body and his mind don’t yet remember what the 'trauma' that had caused him to Activate _was_ , but his _soul_ , the source of his Flames does; he wakes up from _that_  dream with Sky Flames dancing over his skin, his Flames abruptly Active. He manages to hide the Activation; he’s not sure he knows how he did, but he does.

But the dreams keep pouring over him, night after night, until he’s left with eyes rimmed with bruising and worried siblings and those same newly Active Flames are escaping his control. He can feel them, flickering and dancing beneath his skin and at the back of his eyes and that he does his best to conceal; he doesn’t want to acknowledge that ‘mere’ dreams have sent him Flame Active, might make him his Familiga's heir. But he does greedily accept all the hugs he’s offered by his older sister; something about the dreams makes him miss her _desperately_ , but he hasn’t ‘remembered’ why, yet, and he’s not sure he wants to; not with how _real_ the dreams are starting to feel.

But they’re just dreams. He tells himself that, over, and over and over again, until they offer him some potentially verifiable names, like those of the other Skies that feature in them. He asks his father careful, artless questions, using every bit of the diplomacy he remembers from the ‘dreams’ - he refuses to consider them anything other than dreams, _but_. The current Giglio Nero heiress is Aria; she has no siblings or cousins, but her mother does carry the Arcobaleno pacifier of the Sky. He tries another, only to find that there are only three Vongola boys, all of whom are older than him, that his father hasn’t heard anything about a fourth - Xanxus must still be on the streets of Sicily with his mother - and none of the Vongola boys look like Ricardo, let alone Giotto.

He has to stop then; his father is looking at him a _little_ strangely, and he’s not ready to be told he’s crazy yet - or worse, for his father to get ideas about matchmaking. He’s dreamt of at least two separate attempts to marry a ‘teenage version of him to an almost adult Aria, and that was without him showing possible signs of a gift like that of the Giglio Nero line. His great-grandmother had been a rare Giglio-Nero second child, so it was possible, he supposed, but the ‘dreams’ the following night insisted that that wasn’t the source of his knowledge; that if it had been Giglio Nero precognition, he wouldn’t have been able to remember, not yet. Yuni had implied that the whole reason that he could remember any of what he was ‘remembering’ was that he hadn’t had a gift like the Vongola’s - or the Giglio Nero’s - for it to get tangled up and confused with.

They had to be ‘dreams’. He was the youngest child, not the _heir_ , and yet he'd been commanding Cavallone men in some of those dreams. They _couldn’t_ be true memories; not with his siblings still alive, if Latent. He was already too clumsy for his father to decide to bypass his older children even for an Active youngest. And the fees for an Arcobaleno's services were too high to waste on tutoring a useless younger son, so that _couldn’t_ be a memory of the Arcobaleno riding on his shoulder. But even with his denials, the nightmares keep coming thick and fast, and detailed, and he now _knew_ too much about the way that the Giglio Nero's visions work - information that would have never been let out of the Family if there wasn’t something odd going on, and he _understands_ the Vongola hyper intuition, it’s limits and it’s strengths in the same way, one that he has no idea how to explain. He’d think his mind was creating things out of whole cloth, but he before he can dismiss the knowledge, can shove it into the same box he keeps any number of other thoughts about things the dreams teach him, he gets dragged along to Federico di Vongola’s birthday party.

And the knowledge _allows him to win a game of hide and seek_ with two Active Vongola Skies, who _both_ have multiple Guardians. He almost fails to pass off as a fluke, but no-one's ever told him what the gift of the Cavallone Skies is. Perhaps he shouldn’t be surprised, given his father’s Latent status; but he pretends he ‘felt’ them hunting him, allowing him to change his hiding place stealthily enough to evade detection and while the Ninth gives him an odd look - his clumsiness is already well known - no one interrogates him further.

Then the first of the absolutely verifiable dreams comes _true_. The Vongola Ninth brings home a street kid, with blood red eyes, a temper and active Flames and proclaims him his son. And he has to accept that at least some of the dreams might be memories of things still to happen.

Some of the dreams, the memories say the Ninth lies; others that the man speaks truly, but not the _whole_ of the truth. There’s a strong undertone of ‘all this has happened before, and all this is happening again’ and he already _hates_ that phrase; what’s the point if this all has already been decided. He says ‘No’, it will not; he will not allow his siblings to die - not even if that will make him heir, will make using the Familiga’s assets easier; nor will he leave his Tsu-nii to suffer under the Seal - it’s not been placed, not yet, and if he has his way it _won’t_ be. And he knows enough about the zero-point ice from other dreams to want to avert Xanxus’s fate, too.

The more he tries to change things, the more resistant to being changed they seem to become. At least the major events; he suspects he just hasn't found the right lever yet - the small things do change when he pushes them. He breaks into his Father's office - his sister is happy to help with what she thinks is a little bit of mischief, distracting their father and his men long enough for him to plant a few harmless surprises - and tweaks household’s duty rotas, replacing his current bodyguard with his Romario, who is currently a teen just out of training.That helps _significantly_ with his clumsiness, especially when he allows himself the light ‘tether’ that’s the start of a Guardian Bond. Even if his clumsiness _has_ saved his life, once or twice, he refuses to be as much of a liability as he remembers it making him prior to Reborn’s tor-training. With Romario as his bodyguard, he can train and maybe if he fails to change things enough, when Reborn comes, he won't be quite so _hopeless_.

With his reduction in clumsiness, he manages to talk his Father into sending him to one of the two feeder schools for the ‘Mafia’ Academy; it’s the one slightly further away from their home, which takes all the diplomacy skills he can remember from the ‘dreams’ - which definitely _aren’t_ dreams, he accepts at this point - to manage. But it’s the one he _remembers_ Squalo talking about attending prior to the Academy - his older self had been homeschooled, his clumsiness too much of a liability.

He wants to befriend Squalo earlier - and as an equal. Not that they weren't friends before - Squalo had certainly brought him enough souvenirs from missions and being willing enough to back off when he’d demanded it - but with Romario in tow, he can keep up with the silver-haired - currently Latent - Rain, rather than just being the class joke. He prefers it this way; especially as his next, unnerving step, the one he's still trying to talk himself into, is to befriend Xanxus di Vongola.

He also starts to suspect that _maybe_ Romario remembers some of the future too, for some reason. He’d been expecting complaints to be directed at his Father for the older teen’s ‘babysitting’ duties; looking after the clumsy and useless youngest Cavallone isn’t exactly the assignment that most up and coming foot soldiers would want. His suspicions are confirmed when Romario's Flames start to unfurl, starting the slow, slow shift from Latent to Active that comes with deliberate training to activate them rather than any of the more traumatic and rapid techniques. His own are Active, but he's still hoping that the part of his nightmares where he commanded the full might of the Cavallone wouldn't come true, so he has them wrapped up impossibly tight, not letting out more than the absolute minimum necessary to maintain the tether to Romario he's using to keep himself half-way stable. When Romario's fully Active, he'll see if his Flames still want a full bond with the older mafioso - he hopes they do. He misses the full depth and breadth of that quiet, stabilising bond.

(He sneaks into his father's office again, makes sure that the folders with the information his father and his right hand need to catch the pair of underBosses who nearly ruined the Family are near enough to the surface that they might get looked at in time.)

Iemitsu Sawada drops out of sight for three months - he's annoyed with himself that it takes two of those months to remember _why_ the CEDEF head might have done so, though some of the delay has to be put down to two facts; the sheer quantity of data the dreams have dumped into his brain, and that he's not _formally_ in the Cavallone information loop - he has to listen at keyholes and sweet talk information from his father's men, rather than just being told, and maybe, just maybe he misses being the Boss. Just a little bit. But he remembers Tsuna, remembers adoring his 'little brother', and the trials and tribulations inflicted on him, and he makes himself approach Xanxus at the next of the interminable Vongola events he's dragged to. His father was showing off that like the Vongola Ninth, he too had managed to sire multiple Skies, and parading his older sister beneath the Vongola boys' noses; she’s Latent, but even a Latent female Sky is a major catch.

Meeting Xanxus now, with his own Flames active, and on an _almost_ equal footing, makes the Wrath Sky a far less intimidating creature than Xanxus at fifteen, angry and far more physically capable had been for his older self. Xanxus is just a scared street kid, thrown in the deep end of Mafia society, not a raging - and wrathful - teenager. He wishes again that he had his adult growth - the ‘dreams’ have knocked the Vongola Ninth off his pedestal, and he can see the next six years of mistakes the man makes unfolding before him, and he wants nothing more than to be able to confront the leader of the Alliance, but he can't. He can't even get to close to the older Sky, lest the old man's dubiously functional intuition works long enough to figure out that he's not _just_ the nine year old youngest son of the Cavallone Ninth.

(Not that he thinks the old man's intuition is that accurate, but he might pick up something was wrong, and then there would be Bouche Croquant digging around in his head, and killing the Mist, using one of the methods that Mukuro had drilled into him when they were up against the Millefiore, would ring alarm bells. And _shit_ ; the Estraneo!)


	2. Prologue Pt 2

Aria’s on her own, other than one of her mother’s men - he wonders where Gamma is, how old the Lightning is; he’d thought Aria’s right hand was her own age, had been with her since her teens, but he’s seen no sign of him - and looks rather startled when he bounces up to her at one of the events intended to socialise the children of the Allied Families, and her eyes slide brilliant orange. He suspects it’s because she’s already starting to take control of her Family, and that’s intimidating to even the Vongola boys, which means she’s rarely even dragged into the gossipy circles of the girls, and is too highly valued to be dragged into the boys’ rough and tumble antics. She might only be ten, but she’s been trained from birth for this, has her mother’s gift for precognition and like all the Giglio Nero Donnas was born Active - rumour has it she almost has a complete set of Guardians, though he doesn’t think she does; there’d be at least one trailing her here if she did. Guardians were the one group of adults _not_ excluded from this gatherings.

She was sometimes teased as a bastard, but he doesn’t understand how anyone could possibly ignore the relationship between her and Reborn; it’s there in her bone structure, in her Flames - their strength and their Sunniness - and while she keeps it well hidden, she has a definite love for chaos; he’s watched her at a number of previous events, and she regularly pranks _everyone_ and steals the best cake for herself. There’s a little bit of him that wonders if anyone ever noticed her mischief in the version of ‘reality’ the dreams represent, but he suspects not given how isolated the Ninth Giglio Nero Donna had been when his older ‘dream’ self had met her.

Perhaps he has an unfair advantage, though - his dream ‘self’ spent five _long_ years, from twelve to seventeen under the Arcobaleno’s thumb, and another fifteen with the man dropping by on a whim, or blackmailing him into helping with schemes - they’d negotiated a few rules about the hitman doing so; no contracted deaths and nothing that would harm his Famiglia, but little else; his ‘dream’ self had owed the man a _lot_ and he’d rarely abused the privilege of having a Don at his beck and call - and it means he’s seen the man in almost every state. Including a brief glimpse - shared with his little ‘brother’ - of Renato Sinclair. He knows she's seen something, or remembered, too, when after she blinks, and her eyes return to their normal shade, he's rewarded with a ridiculously tight hug - he thinks she must have seen something, judging by his memories of her from the Future-That-Wasn't; they weren't close enough for hugging in his dreams. The murmured ‘thank you, thank you, _thank you_ ’, only confirms that.

She’s perfectly happy to join him in his self-imposed mission to socialise the still semi-feral Xanxus; their methods - bribery and example, and safer ways to vent his anger - prove far more effective than those of the Ninth himself, or his younger sons, or of his Guardians. Not that the Ninth’s Guardians are doing anything _wrong_ , they’re just not connecting to the street rat that Xanxus still is; they mean well, but they’re used to leaning on their Sky’s Harmony to influence his sons and Xanxus is resistant to being managed that way.

It should have made them realise that there was something off with the Ninth’s proclamation of Xanxus as his son, but it’s just put down to the boy being a rare ‘Wrath’ Sky. He snorts; that’s not what’s happening; not with how easily Enrico, the oldest of the Ninth’s boys at twenty-eight talks Xanxus into behaving himself - or how easily the younger boy relaxes around him; Enrico’s mother was a Cavallone, whereas the two younger Vongola boys had a different mother. It certainly explained why the Ninth had claimed Xanxus; his heir having a bastard strong enough to wrest control from any legitimate children would make a political alliance more complicated.

Having the youngest - and only Flame Active amongst the Cavallone children - he was leaking enough Sky Flames for the Don to pick up he had gone Flame Active, even if most everyone else was blind to the fact - and the Giglio Nero heiress - the visible representative of the Family, now that her mother had started to _truly_ succumb to the Arcobaleno curse - concentrate their attentions on his prickly fourth 'son' definitely confuses the Vongola Ninth. Not that the Ninth can do very much to divert either of them from their mission to socialise Xanxus into someone a little less feral - not that there’s anything wrong with the Xanxus his ‘dream’ self met, he adds mentally, to that train of thought, but persuading the other Sky to think before acting would make for a _fantastic_ lever to change things - and he’s actually growing to appreciate the Wrath’s sense of humor, and Aria’s taste for chaos. Even without suffering at Reborn’s hands personally, it seemed the Arcobaleno had warped his personality.

The dreams change again; Yuni returns - he hasn’t dreamt of her for almost two years, since he got his Flames and the constant stream of memories more or less under control - to warn him that Xanxus is one of the ones who will remember; he only has until the other Sky achieves his first two bonds before the Wrath will remember.

When the Ninth does try his lost roll of the dice to break the three of them apart, it's Aria who loses her temper, an Aria with a full complement of Guardians and her Family's Ring on her finger - but at least not yet the Pacifier at her throat - she's eleven, but the Giglio Nero's peculiar niche in the Flame Mafia means that Aria _can_ speak truth to power, and tradition has that they _must_ be listened to. The blazing row between her and the Vongola Ninth becomes the stuff of legends in the upper reaches of the Mafia; she had matched her immature Will - buoyed as she had later told him by one of her visions, whose details she _refuses_ to tell him - against the Ninth's and proved herself his equal. Not that the rumours had included that part; the Iron Fort's Mists work hard to blur the fact that the Ninth had been overpowered by an eleven year old girl.

But Xanxus still joins him and Aria at school for the first year of secondary school - for which both he and Xanxus are a little young, but this was the Mafia Academy; if they could keep up, no-one gave a good goddamn about their ages. Xanxus is still more than a little confused by the two of them and their interest in a street brat, but willing enough to play along as they actually explain the things he's missing. And don’t tease him about it. He’s actually far smarter than either of them - even with all the knowledge his dreams provide him, the only subject he stays consistently ahead of Xanxus is Mathematics & Finances. Which given his ‘dream’ self apparently had to drag the Cavallone back up from close to bankruptcy and had been some kind of financial wizard is a relief.


	3. To Ride Ira

One of the biggest advantages to the ‘dreams’ - he’s still calling them that, because he doesn’t want to accept _all_ of what they show as memories - is that his ‘dream’ self picked up a lot of useful skills, and got over at _least_ three of his biggest fears under Reborn. One of which was his - highly embarrassing - fear of horses; the dream in which his brother died, trampled to death by one of their herds hadn’t helped, and of course it had come first in the sequence, rather than the one where Reborn had harassed him back into the saddle, but he’d feared them before the dreams; clusminess and horses and siblings who made it all look effortless had had him tied in knots. But his head hurt and riding was the only one of the socially acceptable - and permitted to a ten year old - ways of soothing the ache he had available to him.

Which was why he was here, in the stables, talking one of the newer stable lads into putting tack onto one of the livelier horses; none of the men in the stables would have allowed him out on the stallion that he wanted. They had all gotten so used to his clumsiness, his ability to trip over thin air - even he has, though Romario’s presence was helping a _lot_ \- that they wouldn’t dream of putting him on anything but the most docile of the ponies. With the way he’d shied away from even the ponies, the stablemaster would have probably refused to saddle a horse for him at _all_ , but the lad he’d approaches was so green that he actually managed to mix him up with his older brother, so was willing enough. He’s still not sure exactly why he thinks this is a good idea, but he needs the quiet companionship of riding, and his Flames still come easiest when he’s in peril. And, of course, he misses Scuderia, like he’d miss a limb; he at least knew the _names_ of the scientists that had been involved in making the box animals, thanks to the time he’d spent annoying Kyoya. Who was another person that he missed, along with his little brother. Perhaps when he finally let on he was Active to his father, he’d use the allowance he’d get from the Family Trust to invest in box animal research? That felt right to the instincts that he relied on in Mathematics  & Finance anyway.

His father had taught him to ride, but he’s done so so rarely over the past few years that he barely manages to scramble up into the saddle without annoying the stallion. The lack of practise though means that he doesn’t have to deal with over writing his body’s instincts, but rather just has to force muscle memory to match his ‘actual’ memories, but that was easy enough with the Harmony Factor of Sky Flames. He might not have been the strongest of Skies, but that just meant that his older self had figured out all sorts of tricks; especially given Kyoya and the fact that the Cloud had a perpetual desire to ‘bite him to death’. He just had to force the memories on his muscles, _make_ his outer self match what he _knew_ ; he _knew_ he could ride, knew he could ride well, and it was just a case of making his body remember _how_. The effort leaves him panting, the horse beneath him prancing in response to the flame that had flickered on his forehead briefly. Allowing the stable boy to see that, to be the one that got to report he was Flame Active to his father was a partial apology for the amount the other kid was going to get shouted at for giving hopeless Dino his father’s prize Stallion to ride.

He’s not as much fun to ride as Scuderia, but that’s like saying a piece of chocolate isn’t as nice as a glass of smooth whisky; his box animal and this stallion are two completely different creatures. And he - Ira - was a gorgeous horse to ride, worth every lira his father had spent on him, and his other self insisted Ira was the sire of the horse that would _become_ Scuderia; he could believe that, with the way the stallion accepted the Sky Flames licking beneath his skin, bringing him into Harmony with the horse he was riding. So much so that he barely needed to _think_ before Ira responded to him. He rode Ira for the rest of the day, exploring the estate, merging the dreams of doing this, of beating the bounds, into _actual_ memories, the two of them successfully dodging his father’s guards. Which given that the stallion he was riding was so close to being white that ‘grey’ was an insult, and he had Sky Flames licking over his skin said that they needed a _hell_ of a lot of training.

It’s almost dusk when he rides back into the stable, and he’s not surprised when his father, and his father’s right and left hands are waiting for him. He _almost_ turns Ira back around, but that would be behaviour unfitting for a Boss and Reborn would - no Reborn. No Reborn, and the memories of his mentor’s death shoves itself forward in his head, and nearly undoes the calm that riding Ira had won him. “Why didn’t you say something, Dino?”

His father isn’t as frail as he remembers him being, can still lift him down from Ira’s back almost effortlessly, and the hug he’s snatched up into is unexpected, and he hugs his father back, desperately. He hated the man for dying and leaving him with the messy burden he had in his dreams, but he was still his father, and he _loved_ him. “I’m ‘hopeless’ Dino. But Sky Flames meant that you would name me heir and I didn’t want to take that away from mi fratello.”

“Who - no. It doesn’t matter. You’re not hopeless. Not if you can ride my stallion like that.” He’ll take that. It’s better than the memories; even his father had called him hopeless by the time the man was dying of cancer, had been pessimistic about him surviving Reborn’s hands, and had expected the Family just to be absorbed by the Vongola under Enrico.


	4. A Ring to Wear

“Dino.” He’s been sliding beneath everyone’s notice deliberately since the Dreams started, trying to find his feet in the ever-shifting morass that was the memories that were being dumped into his head in stages. The wealth of affection his father manages to infuse into his name startles him. With the effect of the dreams, the clumsiness that he was still trying to figure out how to cure or at the very least _manage_ , and the way he’s been trying to minimise any suspicion, the confusion of almost twenty years of memories of _not_ having his father, of their messy relationship that his other self had had with their father between his current age and his fourteenth birthday, it feels like it’s been forever since his father had spoken to him with that level of affection in his voice.

There’s a Ring in his father’s hand, and he took half a step backwards. “I heard what you said, Dino. But before you say _no_ , it’s not the heir’s Ring. But you’re Active, and if we don’t make it clear that you’re part of the Family, you’ll be a target as soon as people _realise_ that you are. So I’m offering you a choice, Dino; the Ring and training, or more guards. You’ll be too tempting a target on your own and untrained.” He knows exactly what issue his father was talking around, and had most of a plan to try and rescue his little brother’s Mist - thank fuck for Reborn’s training - but he was relieved that his father had enough sense not to dump the entire shitty Estraneo mess on a ten year old’s head. Especially the rumours of child abduction and child experimentation, though from things he’d dreamt of, he had another year before they did anything irreversible to Mukuro and his siblings; not that being experimented on by your parents wasn’t shitty, but his older self had gotten enough detail via Chrome to be fairly sure that the kids hadn’t started to die till then.

He takes the Ring, and slips it onto the finger his other self had worn the Boss Ring he _wasn’t_ going to wear. He didn’t care what blandishments his father offered, his brother, or better yet his sister was going to be the Family’s tenth Boss. The Ring looks subtly wrong there; too many years of memories from his other self wearing the goddamn Boss Ring. All of that self’s memories are of the far more ornately carved Cavallone Boss Ring, and he’s a little bit sceptical of his father’s claim that the one now on his finger wasn’t the heir Ring, but he couldn’t be sure, as his other self hadn’t gone Flame Active until after he’d been dropped into Reborn’s ‘gentle’ hands. His other self hadn’t had a heir of his own to give a Ring to, either, so had never seen fit to sort through the Flame Focuses in the vault. And this was definitely a focus, a strong one; he recognises it from the way the Ring was touching his Flames in a similar fashion to the Boss Ring his father wore. He fed a little of his Flame into it, to test how high a grade it was, and allowed the result to dance across his fingers. A-grade, he decided. And old from the feel of the metal.

“I’m envious, Dino. I never did get my Flames to awake.” There was a wistful edge to his father’s voice, and his hands had eyed each other in a way that suggested to him - from memories of similar interactions with Romario - that the two men were going to get his father drunk later. Both of them were latent too, but there was a bond there. “We’ll have to organise training for you; the Vongola have a Sky around your age, don’t they?” Xanxus, who he and Aria were taming, who had a very Stormy Sky, and who also needed training. Perhaps his father asking to include him in Xanxus’s training would actually force the Ninth to take Xanxus’s training more seriously. Meditation had helped his other self with his instincts, and he wondered if anyone had bothered to teach the Wrath Sky to meditate.

His consigliere - or the man who would be - skidded into the stableyard, breathless from what he suspected was a sprint across most of the Villa. “What were you _thinking_ Dino?” The interjection comes from a breathless Romario, and he feels a little bit guilty for making him worry, but he had badly needed the peace that came from riding Scuderia’s sire. “Sorry for interrupting, Boss -”

He let his Sky Flames seep out from under his skin, and was rewarded with Romario’s finally manifesting, and he let himself do what he’d wanted to do for the past two years. He launched himself at his right hand and cuddled him the way only a ten year old could get away with, a possessive “ _mine_ ,” on his lips. His father and his right and left hands laughed; he assumed at the flustered look on Romario’s face, but he was too busy, doing the mental equivalent of a cat rolling around in catnip, to care. He’d missed the calm that was his Rain’s touch, and perhaps Xanxus would stop looking at him like he was trying to poach Squalo now. He and Squalo wouldn’t have made a good Sky-Guardian match, whereas Squalo and Xanxus were like a match made in _Hell_. He’d have said Heaven, but the two of them would get kicked out within minutes.

“I think we need to have discussion about bonding etiquette, Dino Cavallone.” His father’s voice carried a reprimand, but he had his Rain _finally_ , and he didn’t care! Maybe he had been a _bit_ naughty about claiming him, but Romario had been his for _decades_. He shook his head and stuffed the memories of being thirty-two and twenty years with his Rain at his back back into their box. His father turned to his Rain, and his voice shifted. “Romario, my apologies. It seems you have some new duties; and Dino, for pulling _that_ stunt, _I_ will be choosing your bodyguards while your Romario is brought up to speed with what it means to be a Guardian.” He growled, surprising himself at the reaction to potentially being separated from his Rain. “Growl at me again like that, Dino Cavallone, and I will send you down to Mafia Island and pay the Rain Arcobaleno to spend an entire month terrorising you.”

He contemplates growling again; Colonello’s idea of training had the potential to be a lot of fun, and it would get him into contact with the Arcobaleno. He contemplated bargaining for him and his siblings to be sent down to the Island; perhaps an Arcobaleno’s training and an introduction to Shamal would allow him to keep his siblings? He doubted his siblings’ latent status would survive contact with an Arcobaleno; his certainly hadn’t, and nor had his little brother’s Guardians latency. And perhaps he could find his little brother’s right hand if he snuck off while they were down there? No, Hayato wouldn’t have run from his father yet; it would be years until he did. Unless - accepting an invitation to one of the boy’s recitals could be doable.

He started to open his mouth, and his father snorted, but surprisingly it’s his father’s left hand that answers. “He’ll need some conditioning before sending him to Colonello will do any good, Nono. And if you and he insist that he isn’t being groomed to lead the Family, you’ll need to send all three of them down.” He snaps his mouth shut, and resolves to be nicer to his father’s consiglieres. They’d never been sent to Mafia Island for training _before_ and it was nice to finally be managing to shove things hard enough that they _changed_.


	5. Plotting at School

His father is _cruel_. Snatching Romario away for further ‘training’, just as he’s established a full bond leaves him all sorts of off-balance. His Father’s left hand - Angelo - is the one who takes him to school the next day; he wanders around the school talking to all of his teachers, telling them about his Active Status, and stays to play guard the way his Romario normally does. He wants to harrumph; he knows why they’re being informed, but the way they look at him _changes_. Neither of his siblings are Flame Users, and the way they’re looking at him, they _assume_ they’re looking at the next Cavallone Don. He _hates_ it; he has no intention of being the Don. His _sister_ would be an _excellent_ Donna; he might have dreamed of saving the Family from ruin, but she’d be _happy_ running the Family in a way that he doesn’t ‘remember’ being. He had some ideas about what he would do if he wasn’t put in that position, but he didn’t want to tempt fate by telling _anyone_.

He ends up hiding behind Aria and her designated Guardian of the Day - Gamma today, though they hadn’t been introduced - long enough to get to one of the refuges set up for Active students; word of him being an Active Sky had gotten into the school population _already_ , and there had been at least two attempts to trick him into bonding before he’d even got out of morning classes. Classmates who he had barely registered as Flame Active had flared their Flames at him, and hadn’t stopped until Xanxus had _snarled_ at them from his seat nearby. Which, fortunately, the instructor decided to ignore; he didn’t want to see what would happen if the still somewhat feral Xanxus decided to make his displeasure at their classmates’ gauche behaviour known. Whilst their teacher was a Rain - a precaution the Academy had had the sense to take with the volatile mix of students in the room - he wasn’t strong enough to actually put Xanxus down for the count if he was truly _raging_. Being able to curl up on the roof terrace reserved for Active Skies, out of the way of the majority of the students was a relief.

And his new bond with Romario, the splash of Rain Flames painted across his Sky means that Xanxus is less growly; the Wrath had been getting territorial over Squalo in the most ridiculously cute way. Not that he’d tell him he’d had that thought, because telling Xanxus that he’d thought _anything_ about him was cute, before he got the hang of using his Secondary Sun properly, was likely to end _badly_. Once his father had let him have his Rain back, he was going to have to ask Romario to share the techniques he’d been using to train his Flame with Squalo, and see if having an Active Rain might calm Xanxus down further, before he _did_ kill one of their classmates. That would fuck with his plans. Not that Squalo was calm, but even an Inverted Rain - as most in the Italian mafia Flame culture would call him - was still a peacemaker of sorts. Albeit one who would kill quietly and think about asking questions if someone found a necromancer. Which actually, thinking about Byakuran’s Daisy - he shuddered. He wasn’t going to try that experiment.

And Squalo wasn’t that far off going Active, either, now he looked properly; he thought that might be a result of the latent Rain spending a lot of time around three Active Skies. Aria had a full set, he could tell, but that was a recent development and he and Xanxus were ‘looking’ for Guardians - though both of them suppressed that aspect of their Flames as best they could. He wondered who had taught Xanxus that skill, because unless something had shifted, the Ninth and Xanxus were still at odds; maybe Enrico? Though if they had pushed Squalo towards Activation, then the Academy had a potential issue on their hands, because they - meaning he and Aria and Xanxus - had been there for less than a year, and still had several to go, and if his plan _worked_ then there would also be both his siblings in the upper years radiating Sky Flames all over the place. And there was Federico, who was still attending classes at the Academy three days a week.

“Xanxus, is your father still being a prick about training you?” The Wrath grumbled something incoherent in response, Flames flaring grumpily at the mention of the man, and Squalo squawked in protest at being grabbed and ‘cuddled’ - in a manly fashion - by the other male Sky, who had an increasing tendency to treat Squalo as a comfort object. He was finding it hysterical that as Xanxus adjusted to not being on the streets, and touch being ‘permissible’, he’d gotten progressively more prone to grounding himself via touch, but _only_ with Squalo. Who didn’t know how to deal with it.

“Voooiii! I’m not yours, yet, bratty-Sky.” Xanxus growled, and he bit the inside of his cheek to avoid laughing; that had _sounded_ like a protest from Squalo, but he had memories of over twenty years as the swordsman’s ‘friend’ and that had been closer to being a complaint about the fact that he still _wasn’t_ Xanxus’s, rather than a complaint about the fact the Wrath Sky wanted to ‘keep’ him. He suspected that the moment the swordsman - and Squalo was already skilled enough with his blade to have earned _that_ honorific - went Active, they would bond _instinctively_.

“I’ll take the growl as a yes.” With him and Aria both expressing an interest in Xanxus and ‘springing’ him from the Iron Fort regularly, whatever had caused the rapprochement between Xanxus and the Vongola Ninth in the original timeline hadn’t happened; nor had Xanxus taken to his pistols yet. Instead he tended to use a pair of knives when he faced off against Squalo.

If interrogated, he’d admit to regularly encouraging the two of them to spar with each other, especially when Aria had her Sun with her, because they were so much more _reasonable_ in class in the afternoon when they’d made each other bleed. And neither of them turned on _him_ then. He’d gotten his clumsiness sort of under control, but not far enough that he’d be confident in facing off against either of them; it was part of why he wanted to spend some time with Colonello or one of the other Arcobaleno. He was hoping that like riding Ira had allowed him to force his ‘future’ self’s muscle memories onto his body, he might manage the same with his whip and knife skills with Colonello as motivation. “Warning, he might be even more of a prick in the next few weeks.”

“What did you _do_ to make my father pissy, horse-trash?” Aria rolled her eyes and used her own Rainy Flames to damp the Storm that Xanxus had licking over one of his throwing knives. Which was another thing he seemed to have accidentally applied a lever to. He’d felt Xanxus’s Flames in his dreams; they’d definitely been _very_ balanced between Sky and Storm, but this version’s Storm was _much_ stronger than his Sky. Now that he’d admitted to being Active … he released his firm grip on the desire for more Guardians, and Xanxus’s Storm rolled over like a puppy looking for it’s belly to be rubbed. “Oi, horse-trash. What the fuck did you just _do_?”

“Dad finally noticed I’m Flame Active, and asking the Ninth if I can join you for training made sense to him, rather than having to find a separate tutor; he can’t train me because he’s Latent. And given the bullshit line the Ninth gave you about training last time you asked -” he trailed off, deliberately not touching the second question, and allowing Xanxus to draw his own conclusions.

“Shit. Enrico started training me anyway when I told him about that, but why’d you have to go and do that horse-trash?” The response was calmer than he’d expected and he kept petting the Storm Flames; this was so much easier in his fucking dreams once they all had box animals; soothing the creatures often soothed the human. (Cases in point, Roll, Uri and Bester; he’d found that bribing all three box animals calmed their prickly owners down.)

“I needed to clear my head and I ‘borrowed’ his favourite stallion and got caught is the short version.” _Shit_. He tucked his Flames in almost as tight as he possibly could, and wrapped the remainder around the bond to Romario that was like a toothache in the back of his head; his father really had come up with an effective punishment by separating them at this stage in the bonding process. It wasn’t going to do either of them or the bond permanent damage, _but_ it was still a nagging hurt. Xanxus’s Storm had started to reach out to his Sky, and he recognised it as the very earliest stages of harmonisation. “He’s talking about sending the three of us - my brother and sister, I mean - down to Colonello in the summer; is there any chance -” he trailed off.

“Mama would probably be amused if I made a point of spending time with each of the Arcobaleno; she’s still their Sky, but even having gone ‘chibi’ she doesn’t have long left. And she finally confessed that I should be calling Renato dad, not uncle. So we might end up with two or even three of them converging on the Island if I drop the right hints. They’re all still angry at her for getting them cursed, but after Viper figured out that the curse would devolve on me when Mama died, they’ve been spoiling me.”

“I’ll ask Enrico, horse-trash. He’s being much more reasonable than the fucking old man, and he seems to know how to maneuver around the asshole and his minions best. And what the fuck did you just do with your Flames?” The repetition of the question, this time in the specific, made him wince, and check that they were still under control.

“Nothing intentional, Xanxus. I was just relaxing a bit -” Truth, but not the whole of the truth.

“Felt like Enrico makes me feel. You can do that again.” The words were almost slurred and the Stormy Sky looked like he was about to fall asleep, more relaxed than he ever normally was, and he swore, and exchanged a panicked look with Aria, who sighed and shook her head, and mouthed ‘later’ at him.

Angelo stuck his head around the door onto the terrace, unable to come any closer due to the Mist conditions on the threshold, but his words made it clear he’d overheard things he probably _shouldn’t_ have. “Dino, you’re already on probation at home; your father is going to get _irritated_ if you get detention for skipping class. Even if your classmates _are_ gauche idiots. And he made some phone calls; you and your siblings have been signed up to spend Easter with the Rain Arcobaleno. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind two more Skies _if_ your Families are paying for it. Xanxus, do I need to head off my Boss about the training, or?”

“Horse-trash -” Xanxus glared at him, and Aria rubbed her nose, and he bit his lip rather than swear. He trusted his Father’s Hands, but some of what they’d just discussed _really_ shouldn’t go even as far as his father.

Aria’s eyes flashed Sky Orange, the external sign of her using her precognition. “Viper.”

A tiny figure shimmered into visibility on Gamma’s shoulder and he did a double take. “Mou.” That was Xanxus’s Mist, Mammon, and fuck, how had he and everyone else not put together the Mist Officer’s size and the pacifier they wore together and realised they were the Mist Arcobaleno, and just how strong that made Xanxus?

“I’ll send Gamma for fresh strawberries and that strawberry liqueur you like if you make sure everyone _keeps_ the secrets that _need_ to be kept.” His Father’s left hand winced, but didn’t fight the Mist that seeped from the Arcobaleno; probably because he had recognised that there was a vision in play.

“Acceptable, princess. And we’ll discuss security techniques; you’ve got a perfectly functional Mist tertiary you should be making more use of.” The little Mist floated over to Aria’s shoulder, and settled in place. “I will accompany you to class and remind the idiots you were talking of why the rules are in place.” He winced, and wracked his brains for when the original Xanxus and Mammon bonded. This was going to get messy if one of the Arcobaleno took offense to their classmates’ behaviour.

Fortunately his classmates behaved, the sight of an Arcobaleno balanced on Aria’s shoulder causing _all_ of those who had Active Flames to clamp down on them _hard_. It made the rest of the afternoon dull after the revelation he’d get to test himself on Colonello’s training grounds as soon as _Easter_. That was four months sooner than he’d expected, and it was like now he’d finally started to get things to change, they were racing out of control. Not that he minded, not with the fact things were changing, but he still felt off balance. While things _were_ changing, he only had till Xanxus’s second bond before the Wrath Sky and his Rain would start remembering, and if he hadn’t improved things for Xanxus by then, his life expectancy would be measurable in _minutes_.


	6. Limousines and Conversations

He realises as he’s sat in class, that he's finally managed to get the two sets of memories to start to merge. It’s as if his acceptance earlier - that the second set are true for a given value of true - was the key. It’s all he can do to stop the mess in his head from showing; the merger seems to cause his intellectual development to jump; he’s reacting like he’s in his early twenties to stress, rather than like a ten year old. He didn’t think he’d have reacted this calmly to what had happened _without_ the memories; it’s like he’s skipped everything but the physical component of puberty. He’ll have to see if it holds true as his hormones kick in; if his other self’s memories could be relied on, he’d have his first wet dream june-ish. He hoped so.

The way Squalo and Xanxus gravitate towards each other, even five years early is amusing him. What confuses him, though is that Xanxus's Flames don't _feel_ as much like a Sky as he'd expected; not really. Not like Aria’s do - or Federico’s when he runs into the upperclassman in the past. The way his own Flames have started to reach for Xanxus’s Storm whenever he doesn’t have them strictly under control is unsettling, and had resulted in Mammon eyeing him every time he relaxes in class. (Not that he can be sure the little Mist is _eyeing_ him, not with that hood, but it _feels_ like the Arcobaleno is.)

Aria obviously wants to talk to him when class finishes, but Angelo had swooped in before she could drag him off, and herded him out to the waiting limousine. He wants to harumph, like one of the Family’s stallions when they were thwarted, but the man had been Mist-bound right in front of him. Even if Angelo hadn’t fought the binding - his older self had consented to several bindings and still had hated having it done to him - it was something that nobody enjoyed having to allow consent to. Especially when the information he now _couldn’t_ share with his Don had possible serious implications for the Family and the Alliance. “I owe you an apology, don’t I Angelo?”

“That would be a good place to start, yes, Dino. Viper was mercifully gentle with their binding, but it’s still a binding.” Angelo wriggled his shoulders uncomfortably. In the past he’d have felt a little guilty for allowing the binding of any of the Cavallone, especially when it was non-Cavallone secrets at stake, but now he just considered it an unfortunate necessity. Timoteo di Vongola showed no signs of being any more rational about his ‘bastard son’ than he’d been in the future, and with Aria’s mother fading fast, he didn’t really want to see what would happen if someone tried to use Aria against Reborn - or Reborn against Aria. He’d seen what it cost Yuni to resurrect the other Arcobaleno in her memories; he’s made friends with Aria and he didn’t want her to pay _that_ price. .

“Better than the alternate solutions to keep Aria’s secrets, Angelo. Despite it being a Curse, there are people who would kill to be a member of the I Prescelti Sette - or to control them.” His father’s Left Hand eyed him from the other side of the limousine. “I’ll share the information about Don Vongola and Xanxus with my Father tonight, but I refuse to endanger Aria.” He resisted the temptation to add that he considered the binding a little bit of a penalty for giving away his Active status to his classmates and all the aggravation he’d had to deal with as a result.

“Your father wouldn’t endanger the Giglio Nero heiress, Dino.” Angelo’s response was gently chiding.

“And he wouldn’t try to _marry_ me to her in a couple of years?” Angelo winced, though he wasn’t sure if it was at his tone and the way his Flames flared, or if his father had already discussed marrying him to Aria with his Right and Left Hands. “Exactly.” He leaned his head back against the backrest and shut his eyes, but saturated the back of the limousine in his Flames; his older self had learned this trick from Reborn, who used it fairly constantly. “It doesn’t help that I’m showing signs of a Giglio Nero-esque ‘gift’ alongside being Flame Active does it.” Despite Angelo being latent, he _felt_ the twitch as he nailed why the three of them had been discussing it. “It’s not their precognition, Angelo. If it was, I’d accept the contract; I know the rules. Hyper Intuition makes you Vongola; the Sight is Giglio Nero or Gesso depending on the variation -” Angelo twitched again, and he swore subvocally. Byakuran was still a civilian. His ability being designated a Family Gift was a decade in the future. “I’ve _seen_ Aria have a vision, Angelo. It’s nothing like whatever’s going on with me.”

That shut up his Father’s Left Hand, and he settled to calming and petting his own Flames; it wouldn’t do for him to flare them at his Father and right now they wanted Xanxus’s Storm and were so riled up, that they’d lash out if his Father tried to interrogate him in his current mood. He tried to work through why his Flames were so ‘lively’ in a bid to figure out how to settle them down. He’d never had a Storm in the ‘Future-that-wasn’t-going-to-happen-even-if-stopping-it- _killed_ -him’, had never had a Storm even _interest_ him or his Flames. So for his Flames to fixate on _Xanxus_ ; that was new. And taking/having Xanxus as his Storm would _force_ things to change even further. Which given how much he didn’t want the Future-he-remembered to happen was good, and he was going to be completely okay with the fact things were changing, but this was not how he had expected things to change; what would happen to Xanxus’s Guardians if Xanxus became his Storm? He’d never heard of a Sky being another Sky’s Guardian.

The two of them are still sat in silence when the limousine pulls into the mansion’s drive; he ‘remembers’ the feel of that pothole as it developed, and this vehicle _intimately_. And he opens his eyes, and locks eyes with his father’s Left Hand just as the vehicle slows and into the forecourt.“Your father will want to see you after dinner. Go and deal with your homework, and start packing.” Angelo had a thoughtful expression on his face.

“You’ll be leaving on Friday, after school, for a fortnight on Mafia Island with the Rain Arcobaleno, and I suspect you _know_ better than I, what you’ll need. Make sure your siblings start their packing too; you might want to confess your sins to them - no one’s told them about how they’re spending their Easter Holidays.” He groaned. His sister had had plans. His memories had featured that much; his older self hadn’t known who the boyfriend was, just that he existed, and that he’d get her pregnant sometime in the next few months and there’d be complications and he’d lose his older sister. She’d actually _wanted_ to run the Family, and his older self had been convinced she would have been their Family’s equivalent to the Vongola Ottava. . He’d planned to be her shadow until the danger period had passed if he couldn’t figure out another solution; but perhaps this would be the change needed? She’d be too busy keeping up with all the new lessons for a relationship. He certainly hadn’t had the time for one whilst he was trying to learn to use his Flames; out of control Flames and sex were a _really_ bad combination.

“Fuck.” Angelo snorted in amusement. “Isabel had a _date_.” That makes his Father’s Left Hand stiffen, and there was the assassin Angelo hid most of the time looking back at him from behind the man’s eyes. He felt a little bit guilty and manipulative for setting the man on his sister’s asshole boyfriend, and cruel to Isabel who Angelo would be interrogating, but he was fairly sure she would get her own back soon enough; he might have Flames and know how to use them, but Isabel would likely have access to her Flames within a few days of their arrival on the Island. And she was sneaky, and had her adult height and muscle mass.

“Language, Dino. Your father would scrub your mouth out.” Angelo’s right hand was in his pocket, and he hid the smile. Isabel would hate him for what he’d just done, but he’d rather have her alive and hating him and the Cavallone Decima with a brood of nieces and nephews for him to spoil, than dead and buried.

“Fine.” Angelo rolled his eyes, but let him escape the limousine and head indoors; he was half surprised that he hadn’t been dragged directly to his Father, but he’d take mercy where it was offered. He’d hide in his room until Angelo had cornered Isabel, and if he was lucky, his father would send Romario to coax him out for dinner. He’d have the conversation he promised with his Father, but that didn’t mean he was ready to have it _now_.


	7. Mafia Island

"This is your fault, brat." Romario bristles at the aggression in his sister’s voice, and he soothes his Rain with a little of his Flames; Isabel has every right to be annoyed with him. Not that she knew about all of his machinations; not yet. Or she’d be doing a lot more than just calling him brat.

"What makes you say that, sis?" Valentino is sprawled across the sofa across the cabin from the table he's working at; both his siblings had given him odd looks for the amount of reading material he’d brought with him, but if he was going to keep up with Xanxus and Aria, he _has_ to stay on top of his studies. Even with the extra knowledge he’d gained from the ‘memories’, there were holes were his older self had forgotten things, and Xanxus had his intuition and Aria saw the future; at least with the ‘memories’ he knew the practical applications of the things he was learning, which made retaining them easier.

He looks up just in time to see his sister roll her eyes at his brother. "Well, if he hadn't borrowed Ira, Father wouldn't have decided to ship us off for a fortnight's intensive training."

"Actually, Bella it's not just because I borrowed Ira. It's because I figured out _this_." He pools his Flames in his hands, and enjoys the way the two of them stare at him; there weren’t any Active Skies in either of their grades at school, so they weren’t used to feeling Sky Flames in such close proximity. "Father used being sent for training with Colonello as a threat and Angelo called his bluff. But he knows I don't want to be Don, and then Angelo suggested that we should _all_ attend the training in that case." His sister reaches out a cautious finger and touches the Flames in his hands. It's startling; he's never had anyone do that other than Romario and Tsuna, and he half expects the Flames to burn her given her annoyance with him.

They don't though and He can feel her own sleeping Sky Flames stir, starting to wake through the contact. He's tempted to prod and see if he can speed up the process, but they're currently on a small yacht in the middle of the Mediterranean and he remembers what happened when _Tsuna_ finally broke the Seal on his Flames properly. Romario is the one who breaks the impasse; he reaches out, covering his hands with his own Rain Flame covered hand. "Miss Cavallone, you shouldn't touch other people's Flames." He's going to have to figure out how to remove the stick that his Father has apparently rammed up his Rain's ass; he doesn't remember Romario _ever_ being so painfully proper; but if his Rain hadn't got a complete set of the memories, or hadn't remember everything yet, he supposed that it could just be him getting used to his new 'promotion'.

"It's okay Romario. As long as we're not in _active_ conflict they won't hurt Isabel." His Rain looks at him sharply, and he mentally facepalms. When had that become common knowledge? It hadn't been until Xanxus and Tsuna had been getting along, if he remembered correctly, and given that Xanxus had admitted to singeing Coyote with them, he probably shouldn't have mentioned it even to Family members (unless he _wanted_ to undermine Timoteo, which was _very_ tempting). "I've been raiding the library." A partial lie; the ‘true’ part being that the self the memories had come from _had_ worked his way through the journals of the previous Dons. The lie part was that those diaries were secured in his father's private office, and were the _only_ written records of the way the Family had historically trained their Skys.

"Does that mean Romario's one of your Guardians, Dino?" The question comes from his older brother. "We just thought he was one of the handful of Dad's men that was willing to put up with your clumsiness." His hand snaps up, grabbing Romario's hand and disrupting his Flames before his Rain could put his older brother to sleep for the rest of the trip.

"He's my Sky, yes." Romario's voice is chilly, and he shoves enough Harmony at his Rain that the man sways and has to sit down beside him, and he shamelessly curls into the man's side and keeps dosing him. Romario ends up with his head back against the cabin wall, and an arm wrapped around him. "Dino, I'm not above using my Flames on you in retaliation, brat. Careful with that." But Romario's relaxing, and one of his hands is ruffling his hair, so he takes the warning with a pinch of salt.

"You're far too laid-back about being thrown at Colonello, Dino." He supposed he was; the Rain Arcobaleno’s training courses were semi-legendary, and he’d forgotten to account for Val’s inconvenient ability to notice the little details. Add in his brother’s ability to get very, very focused on something when's he's interested in it, and that he can feel the way Valentino is now curious about what's going on through his Flames. He has to bite his cheek to stop himself laughing. "And too happy about it."

"Xanxus and Aria are joining us. And we might see some of the other Arcobaleno, too." He shamelessly throws that tidbit of information out. He suspects that it'll be enough to distract his older brother from the ‘real’ reason he was looking forward to this; it wouldn't have distracted his baby brother, but once he’d been unSealed, Tsuna used his intuition on an _instinctive_ level. It does distract Valentino; he’d forgotten that his older brother was fascinated by the Arcobaleno curse. The rest of the journey passes in a discussion of the Arcobaleno, and he shares that the Arcobaleno are currently spoiling their Sky's daughter because of the likely ongoing repercussions of the curse.

Check-in on the Island is grossly simplified by his Active Flames, his Father's arrangements, and the fact that he knows what happens if they fail; they'll just end up getting booted straight into one of Colonello's assault courses rather than getting a night's sleep first. For him to get the 'official' to take the bribe is simple enough; and he takes the opportunity that his siblings' tests represent to suggest to the receptionist that they really need to get an Active Storm to be the tester if they didn't want Skies whether Active or Latent to 'walk' the test.

Her response is not actually the one he expected; the receptionist laughs, and points out that any Sky capable of passing the test, who wasn't already attached to a Family, would soon find themselves 'adopted' - whether voluntarily or forcibly. She had a point, though a weak one; perhaps he’d have to check whether his father had any watchers on the Island. Either to see if they could court any unaffiliated Skies - whether latent or not -, or to identify ones whose affiliations were _obscured_.

Isabel passes. He's not surprised when Val fails, though. His big brother is far too blunt for his own good sometimes, and he _had_ let slip about what the penalty for failing was. He rolls his eyes and makes arrangements for them both to follow his brother; some of the Cavallone men will take their bags to the barracks for them, and then he and Romario, and Isabel and her guard board the train to Colonello's half of the Island.

Valentino is upside down, foot in a trap, laughing hysterically, and his Flames already halfway to Active when they emerge from the train car. He checks the area, spreading his Flames out cautiously, trying to achieve some sort of Harmony with his environment, and notes Xanxus asleep half way up a tree, and he wants to laugh out loud. The urge only gets stronger when Colonello aims his anti-tank rifle at the three of them; he knows that it doesn’t contain live rounds. The Rain’s first shot hits Isabel, and it covers her in blue paint, and he can't do anything other than laugh and duck, and he slides into Harmony with Romario, and the Rain follows his lead, and he skirts round his now raging - and _Active_ \- sister to cut down his still hysterically laughing older brother.

"You have potential, Kora. But I wasn't expecting any of you till tomorrow." He ducks the shot. He still has memories of Reborn training him, and his Flames grab onto all of those memories, and he was so right about this being an effective catalyst. He spares a glance for Xanxus, and finds him still asleep; interestingly the Wrath Sky has two pistols holstered on his thighs, and that's new. He wonders if that was Enrico's gift, or had come from _another_ source. "But now that you're here -" the Rain Arcobaleno aims at Xanxus and he shuts his eyes. There's an indignant sound from Xanxus, reminiscent of Bester when he’d been doused in cold water when he opens his eyes again, he sees Xanxus has landed on his feet, and already has one of the pistols drawn; behind Xanxus the tree he’d been napping in had gone up in flames and was now a charred smoking skeleton. "- we should get started."

Colonello is just as bad as Reborn, and he doesn't have _nearly_ as many memories of the things in the Rain's bag of tricks. He barely has time to breathe, but by mid-afternoon he and Xanxus are the only two left standing. Both Isabel and Valentino had gone Flame Active once Colonello had started terrorising them properly, and had run through their Reserves in a few moments of uncontrolled Dying Will Mode; they'd been shipped off to the infirmary to check that they hadn't damaged themselves. Given the manic grin on Valentino's face, and the content smile on Isabel, they were both okay; but that had left him with Colonello focused on him and Xanxus, and that made hiding ten years of Reborn’s training far trickier. At least he wasn't trying to use a whip; that really would have given his level of training away. He _misses_ his Leon-whip. And he misses Scuderia; this is like trying to fight hobbled and with both hands tied behind his back.

He's exhausted when the Rain Arcobaleno finally releases him from his tor-tutoring. As is Xanxus, and he still has thirteen more days of this ahead of him. But he is _trying_ to be a good baby brother, so he makes himself visit his siblings in the infirmary before he crashes. He almost wishes he hadn’t; he’d done a double take when he saw Trident Shamal - ten years younger than he'd been the first time his _other_ self had met the doctor-assassin - hovering over his older sister. He blinks and does a second double-take, and yes, those are his sister's Flames _flirting_ with Trident Shamal's. He's not sure whether to despair, or to cackle with laughter. If they bonded, that was going to result in his sister butting heads with Shamal. His sister, who _hated_ mafioso machismo, trying to rein in the unrelenting womanising of the Mist. He wanted to see who came out on top from that argument, especially given how close they were to bonding _already_. His Father was going to be torn between blowing his top at his baby girl having a shameless Mist as her first Guardian, and congratulating her on having a _very_ lethal senior Guardian. But hopefully it would help with his minor plot for her to be their Decima.

Fortunately for his sanity, there's no one flirting with his older brother when he checks in on him, and he retreats to his own room in the barracks. He’s a Sky with a bonded Guardian, so there are bunk beds, and Romario’s already there and he’s _very_ grateful when his Rain uses his Flames to knock him out so he can sleep properly despite all of his bruises. Hopefully his _own_ Flames will deal with those overnight.


	8. Flirting and Slip-Ups

He’s nowhere near as sore when he wakes up again; his Flames know how to deal with Arcobaleno training, and they’ve erased the worst effects nicely. He’s still a patchwork of colours, but those colours will fade fast enough. He is curled up next to Romario though, his Rain warm and comforting, and he’s glad he got a room to himself with his one Guardian. “Shh. Go back to sleep. Still tired, Dino.” He giggles and manages to slip out of the room, leaving Romario to sleep off his own exhaustion.

Breakfast, with Isabel and Shamal leaning into each others' Flames makes him and Valentino _squirm_. It’s so intimate watching the two of them work out where the edges are, how the two of them fit together, and what the two of them would be like if they decided that they ‘worked’. Even if the two of them weren't actually _touching_ , yet, he could almost _see_ the moment when they would in the way their Flames were merging ... he'd watched Tsuna's Flames _claiming_ each of his Guardians - had been involved in tricking his Cloud into letting go enough to allow Tsuna to claim him - but this was somehow more intimate, and it was his sister after all. And Trident _Shamal_ ; the most ridiculously over the top Ladies’ Man he’d _ever_ met. That would be one hell of a sexual bonding, and he did not want to think about his sister and Trident Shamal having a huge amount of very, very kinky sex. (He knew what a sexual bonding between a Sky and their Element _could_ be. Even if he hadn’t managed to access _all_ of the memory involved.)

He resolves to ignore the pair of them, as best he can. Thankfully between Colonello's idea of a ‘warm-up’ and Xanxus's grumpiness - the camp is both dry and caffeine free - he's able to thoroughly distract himself from the fact that Shamal's appointed himself the medic for the morning. And the way his and Isabel’s Flames were _still_ flirting. But all of that just meant that when their final bonding surge hit him, he was hanging upside down from one of the obstacles. If he’d been paying attention to the way they were flirting, he’d have had both feet on the ground when they finished harmonizing. Instead, he dropped forty-five feet into one of Colonello’s more entertaining traps. By the time he’s escaped the crocodiles - sacrificing a piece of his favourite jacket in the process - his exhausted sister was entirely willing to be cradled in the arms of her new Guardian and carried off to the infirmary.

He shoved any thoughts of what the two of them might get up to, unsupervised, to the back of his head and concentrated instead on _not_ being hit by the high velocity paintball sniper rounds Colonello was using on them, and on trying to decide whether Xanxus had started to remember; he knew that Yuni had said two bonds, but that could be Squalo and him, and they were both _close_ to full bonds.

(Somehow he's not surprised when Shamal and Isabel _aren’t_ in the infirmary when he checks at lunchtime. He lies to Valentino though. His older brother will freak out at the idea that Isabel is a sexual creature. He’s not sure he is comfortable with the idea, but at least it’s better than having to attend her funeral.)

What throws him _completely_ , though, is that not long after lunch Aria shows up with Viper and Verde in tow. He’d expected her; he’d even sort of expected Viper, but _Verde_? Verde had run far, far away when Luce died and oh, she hadn’t died yet, had she? Which meant the Arcobaleno still had partial Flame bonds to keep them around. He can adjust and adapt to that - Reborn with a Sky makes him giggle; by the time the two of them had met the first time, he’d been vehemently opposed to having one - but then Val’s Flames had decided that they’d flirt with the scientist. He was so done with that. So completely done. His brother and Verde were an unholy combination that was going to create a right royal mess - especially since Colonello’s Flames had _also_ decided to flirt with Val’s, and his brother was reciprocating. Fuck, what has he set in motion?

(Viper's Flames' interest in Xanxus is far more expected, especially given the Wrath Sky's ability to see through illusions, and the long running relationship between Mammon and Xanxus, which had been strong enough to keep the Mist Arcobaleno with the Varia while Xanxus was frozen. He ends up dragging Aria off - with Gamma in tow, as guardian and chaperone - to ride the Island’s roller coasters, because if he has to _watch_ three more bondings today he’s going to hit someone.)

"Mama is going to laugh hysterically and then encourage you to try and find Skull, Fon and Reborn sane Skies, too, Dino. She’s worried about what will happen to them when she dies - none of them have been able to bond with me." He doesn't answer her immediately; she'd chosen to say that at the top of a _very_ high rollercoaster, and they'd just crested the peak - and were on the way down, and he screams. He starts to laugh hysterically when he finishes screaming, though, because he knows where at least one of the three that she named will find their bond. "What's so funny, Dino?"

"You've met Sawada, right, Aria? Consider Reborn and Sawada’s _son_.” He regrets allowing it to slip almost as soon as he does.

"One. Who let that _idiot_ breed, and two -" Her eyes flashed orange, and Gamma stiffened. "- okay, that's _ridiculously_ cute, and what _are_ you planning, Dino Cavallone?" Her voice is genuinely curious.

"That depends. What did you 'see'?" He has to ask, needs to know how much damage control he has to do; she’s a seer, and that vision could have provided any number of fragments of the truth. She’d obviously _seen_ Tsuna, but how old had his baby brother been?

"Reborn and an Active Sky playing at being his mini-me." Gamma was twitching, and that was far too much fun to watch. (He had memories of the man killing Cavallone men as the 'fake' Mare Lightning; he figured he was entitled to watch Gamma squirm. Just a bit. Even if he had proven to be Yuni’s dad and her staunchest support.)

"Reborn’s mini-me is called Tsunayoshi." She stares at him, eyes sharp, as they drift towards another rollercoaster, the crowd splitting for the two baby Skies. He’s not sure whether to be amused at that, or worried that he’s leaking Flames. Though it _might_ have been Gamma’s grumpiness; he’d been poking the Lightning’s Flames to see how he and Aria fitted together.

"You know more than you should, Dino Cavallone. Do I need to tell Mama that you can 'see'?" He freezes, and he should have realised that she would put two and two together and make five. He’d have made five with the same information that she was working with. But he didn’t want her to come to _that_ conclusion. Didn’t want _Aria_ convinced they had to get married for the good of her Family. He’s still trying to figure out how to get her to realise that, without, necessarily, telling her _everything_ , when she drags him back towards Colonello's complex, and prods him into one of the training rooms. "Gamma, wait _outside_ the door. Or better yet, go and get Dino's Romario; he and I need to have a _discussion_ , and _you_ don’t need to be here for it."

... Aria was more vicious and highly trained that he realised, and _definitely_ her father's daughter. She hadn’t given him time to explain; she’d gone on the offensive immediately, and he’d responded, matched her blow for blow, and Flame for Flame, and then she’d stepped up _again_ , and he hadn’t finished integrating all of his muscle memories. And then he was flat on his back, with Aria straddling his waist holding a baton to his throat. "You can explain what’s going on, now, Dino. You fight like Daddy trained you." This was not how he was expecting his afternoon to go, but he had fucked up, hadn't he?

"Reborn did train me. Will train me. May train me? I’m getting confused about the tenses, again. It wasn’t in _this_ timeline. Something went really, really wrong, and the Sky Arcobaleno in that time did _something_ with her pacifier and four years ago I woke up dreaming of _that_ timeline, an intense desire to Reborn things so that timeline _wouldn’t_ happen." She started giggling at the use of her father’s name as a verb, and poked him in the chest, eyes alight with her Flames.

"Don't let Daddy hear you use his name as a verb to that way; it’ll make him incorrigible." The two of them sprawled next to each other on the training room floor. "Another Sky Arcobaleno, huh? That means I was dead, doesn't it? Mama’s convinced I’ll inherit the pacifier within the next five years or so, and you’d have used my name if I’d done it. How long did I last in that timeline?"

"The last time anyone saw you, Tsuna was fifteen.” He saw the calculation in her eyes. “Yuni was her name; she was a surprise." He refuses to give the rest of the pieces. She didn’t _need_ to know. He didn’t want to know some of the details he knew.

"What happened? If she _had_ to use that aspect of the pacifiers, then someone stronger than either you and I hunted my aunts and uncles down and killed _all_ of them." He feels her Flames starting to surge, and he’s already starting to recognise the signs of an oncoming vision.

"Sure you want to know?" Her eyes flashed, and she didn't answer him for a long moment, he assumed because the second vision of the afternoon was flowing over her.

"No. No I don't think I do. I rather like my cute baby brother; he's going to be a complete sweetheart when he’s a bit older, and a _very_ good uncle to my daughter." After so long without anything changing, the rapidly cascading changes were starting to throw him completely, and he wasn’t quite sure he knew _what_ was going on anymore. "We need to go to Japan, soon."

"Not until some of the others start remembering." He needed to put a brake on _that_. Mukuro and the Estraneo was his next priority, not Tsuna and Byakuran. He needed to get his little brother’s crazy Mist somewhere safe _before_ he decided that killing everyone and ruling the ashes was the solution to everything.


	9. The Aria and Dino Show

“Princess, are you  _sure_  we don't need to discuss a contract with Don Cavallone?” The question came from one of Aria's Guardians, one who he only sort of recognised, who had opened the door to the training room and found them sprawled on the floor, looking exhausted. Admittedly Aria was using him as a pillow, but  _still_. They both glared at the man, but he allowed Aria to do the talking; the man was one of hers, after all. (And he didn’t have enough memories of the man to be sure of how he’d respond to him  _not_  wanting to marry Aria.)

“No, Micah.” Aria scowled. “Dino has a very fierce Cloud waiting to claim him, and while being sandwiched between them would be fun in the short-term, they'll always be rather more fixated on each other than any third that they allow into their bed. I could tell you who I'm likely to be marrying when I'm older, as could Mama, but I doubt they'd survive long enough for my daughter to be born if either of us did. You and Nigella are overprotective papa bears.” He recognised the grin she was wearing as one of Reborn's when he was about to twist the knife he'd stabbed an unfortunate victim with. “But if you do manage to chase them off, I'm sure Dino and his Cloud would be delighted to father my daughters for me.” He was amused at the face the Sun pulled, and the fact the man didn’t try to respond to Aria, rather choosing to retreat from the room again and closing the door carefully.

“How does nobody realise you're Reborn's daughter, Aria?” Her head is still pillowed on his stomach, and he can feel the way she’s giggling silently.

“Mama did something sneaky with her Flames. And mostly I behave myself; I like chaos with a purpose, as contrary as that sounds, whereas Daddy definitely likes chaos for chaos sake.” He snorts at her use of Daddy for Reborn.

“Have you called him that to his face, yet? Because if you haven't, please warn me so I can have a camera ready.” The giggles became audible.

“Gamma took the pictures. I got him with it last week, when he came to visit Mama for something.” She pulled a small album out of one of her pockets - he just caught the flash of Mist Flames that suggested she'd been working with Viper on her tertiary, and had in fact pulled them from elsewhere - and showed him a picture of Reborn that made him laugh hysterically. “I'll send you copies when we get home, but I wanted to show them to you in person.”

“There is a lot I’d forgive you for for those photos.” His words are absolutely honest.

“Daddy was  _that_  bad?” She’s turned, to look up at his face.

“Worse. He was rather fond of those modified Dying Will bullets of his.” His response was completely dead-pan.

Aria bit off a giggle. “I've seen him use those on Shamal when he was being a pervert. What did you  _do_?”

“I didn't  _do_  anything. I was just a fourteen year old boy who'd lost both of his siblings and  _really_  didn't want to be a Mafia Boss. I think it was just expedient.” Reborn had a knack for shooting him with them at the  _worst_  possible moments; mostly when he wanted to impress Squalo, or one of the others he’d crushed on at school.

She winced, and rolled away from him and sits up. “At least you won't need to put up with Daddy’s idea of training this time?”

“Oh don't get me wrong, I am grateful for his training, but I think he was mourning your mother, and taking it out on me, maybe? I know that Timoteo manipulated him into training me. And if I hated his training so much, then why would I deliberately put all us in to Colonello's hands for more of the same?”

“True. Though the easy answer to that is that Daddy turned you into a masochistic.” Aria’s grin was  _wicked,_ and her delivery just as dead-pan as his had been.

“… I know where I learned that word, but I thought you were supposed to be sweet and innocent, Aria.” Kyoya had taught him a lot about himself.

“You try living with the ability to see the future, Dino. Especially when  _both_  your best friends have very interesting relationships with their future partners of choice.” He blushes. He can't help it. He might not have the hormones to appreciate some of the memories he'd gained yet, but he did have his older self's  _memories_  of the emotions associated with them, and he  _craved_  those feelings. “Oh, you do know who your vicious Cloud is; will he remember, or do you have to rebuild things from scratch?”

“I'm hoping so. Yuni definitely  _implied_  that he would.” He rolled onto his back himself, and up into a sitting position. One of the definite downsides to having the mishmash of memories was that he was far too short, and whilst his muscle memories might be there - thank you Harmony Factor - his muscle tone  _wasn't_ , which meant training was giving the Sun aspect of his Flames a serious workout. “And we should go back to the training area, before Isabel drags her new pet pervert off and does unholy things I don't want to think about to him.”

“It's not her you should be worrying about. I peeked into the future and Valentino cackles maniacally when he's around Verde and Colonello.” He face palmed, and then looked up at the ceiling.

“Dear God, I'm going to regret saving both of them, aren't I?”

“Not as much as you would if you let either of them die, Dino.” She stood up and stretched thoughtfully, then reached out a hand to help him up.

“Point. I still want to stop anything too ridiculous happening though. Because that's not why we're here. I really don't want to lose either of them, which means they need to be Active and  _trained_. Soon.” He shivered at the memories of their deaths.

“Sure you aren't starting to see?” Her voice is light and then she hugs him, making it clear that it was meant to be an affectionate tease.

“Sure. I'd have already sought refuge if I was.” Romario and Gamma were both waiting outside of the training room when they finally emerged, glaring at each other. 

Though Gamma was glaring at Romario because Romario was glaring at him, and oh, they needed to talk about those memories, because he'd last seen that look on Romario's face when Gamma had killed Bono. “Romario, we need to have a talk. He hasn't done any of it yet and has  _no_  idea why you're so annoyed.”

Aria had her hand on Gamma's sleeve, and Flames covering her hands. “Don't, Gamma. I know what he's talking about, and I'll explain  _later_. Once I've talked to Mama. Just know there's a reason why Romario is so twitchy, and it's not anything you've done  _yet_.” He leaves Aria to defuse her Right Hand (and her partner, he knows; Yuni has Gamma’s eyes) and drags Romario off to another one of the training rooms.

“How much do you remember?” He herds Romario to the back of the room, crowding his Rain as best as he can without his adult growth.

“He  _killed_  Bono. We thought he was an ally, Boss, and he stabbed Bono in the throat.” He hit his Right Hand with a wash of Sky Flames, and Romario shook his head.

“It's already a different timeline, Romario. Think about what I was like at this age in the memories you've got, and the 'real' ones you've lived. Could I do this, before?” He pools his Flames in his hands, and lets their warmth cheer him. “ _If_ , and I doubt it will happen, he betrays Aria and our alliance, then and only then can you kill him. He was protecting his daughter to the best of his abilities, Romario. Are you telling me you wouldn't do that for my child, or for your own?”

“Are you  _sure_  I can't kill him, just in case, Boss?” He wrap his Rain up in his Flames and hugs him physically, as well.

“No. And Isabel's going to be the Decima, Romario. Even if I have to kill everyone that objects. I  _know_  I can't escape the life. But I can chose my fate, and I know what i want to do.” He doesn’t want to be the one in charge this time. It almost broke him in that other future. Would have broken him without Tsuna and Kyoya and Romario.

“Boss. You saved the Family. Why -” He cuts off his Rain before he can say anything else.

“Because Isabel would have made a better Decima, and you know it. And if you  _really_ want to kill someone, then go and kill the idiots that got the Family into trouble.  _But_ you have to promise not to get yourself killed. I need you to keep me sane,  _please_.” Romario finally hugs him back and he burrows into it. “Need you. Too many memories in my head.” He mumbles the words into Romario’s chest, and his Rain ruffles his hair and hugs him tighter.

“Not going anywhere, Boss.” His Rain pauses, and there's a laughing edge to his voice. “Given Shamal's already settled into Isabel's room and the two of them are wrapped up in each other, what are you planning to do about Hayato? Didn't Shamal save him from his sister's poison cooking?”

“He did. I'm not sure whether we kidnap him, or pay - and arrange for one of the poison cooking specialists for the Varia to kidnap Bianchi as an apprentice. Both plans have their merits; i was just trying to decide which would be the best plan.” He looks up at his Rain, and wishes that he had Bono here; the Mist had been their planner.

“Neither plan is a good plan Boss. You do remember that they're Don Falco's Heir and Heiress at the moment, not Independents with their own Names, don't you?” And  _this_ was why he needed his Right Hand. “No one even knows that Hayato is a bastard at this point. And he's still Aquilia, too; he renamed himself when he went independent and claimed his birth mother's name.” He hugged his Right Hand again. 

“That sounds like you have a plan, Romario.” He didn’t mean to sound dubious, but Romario’s plans were almost as good as his. That is they were generally  _bad_.

“I'm not sure it's any better than yours though, Boss.” Romario was amused at his response.

“Share anyway.”

“Tsuna and Hayato basically insta-bonded. We kidnap Tsuna and use him as Hayato bait.” He giggled.

“You're right. That wasn't any better.” He released his Rain. “It did give me an idea though; can you talk Bono into investigating a woman called Lavinia Gokudera; she should still be alive, and if we can save her, Hayato will be  _much_  calmer, and we can use her as leverage against Don Falco.”

Romario rolled his eyes at him. “I think a calm Hayato is wishful thinking, but sure, Boss. I'll talk to Bono; you should go and interrupt Isabel before she gives into temptation.” He squeaked; he really didn't need to think about what he'd set in train there, even if there were a number of good reasons behind it. Romario ruffled his hair again. “You were always too young for me to want that way, but I have other friends who bonded and focused on their Skies like that, and Shamal is showing all the signs of Sky-worship.”

He didn't want to think about that. He really didn't. Except that that explained Gokudera and Yamamoto far too well, and he really was going to have to make sure his little brother got his own Right and Left Hands back. He shook his head. Romario and he part ways directly outside the training room; he heads for the quarters where the Skies were housed, intent on interrupting his sister, and his Rain for the comms station to talk to Bono via the Island's satellite link. At least there hadn't been a Sky Flame surge of the sort his older self's memories insisted accompanied an Active Sky getting 'happy'. (He'd never been so glad his father was Latent as when he uncovered  _that_  memory.)

Isabel is in Shamal's lap when he opens the door and he hides his urge to face palm at the sight. “Isabel, shouldn't you at least introduce him to Dad before you jump him? Especially if you're going to be Decima?”

“Hang on. When was  _that_  decided, Dino?” Shamal’s Flames had stilled, and the man was almost, but not quite invisible, so he ignored him for the minute.

“Well, I'm not doing it, and Valentino's flirting with Colonello, who everyone knows has this Island as his territory. And you're the one who actually 'gets' politics; why shouldn't you be our Donna? The Giglio Nero have had Donnas for more than three centuries, and Daniela held the Vongola against all her cousins for three decades. You'd make a far better Decima than Val would Decimo. He wants to research for the sake of research, not Rule.” The looks on both Shamal and ‘Bella’s faces were adorable. Being a Donna’s Right Hand and consort would force the man to behave.

“But the Vongola Settimo did research and Ruled, so -” He wants to giggle at ‘Bella’s instinctive response.

“- and their Ottava took control of the Family as soon as she was capable of fighting and defeating her cousins because she was more suited to actually Leading. They'd have fallen under the Fascists without her. Face it 'Bella, you're more suited to being Decima than either Val or I.” He had a rebuttal for that one.

She eyes him warily. “Fine. But you're going to play enforcer for me.”

“If I have to, but accountancy is far more fun. And Dad is nowhere near as good at it as he thinks he is.” And Xanxus would take great delight in helping him ruin their Family’s enemies, providing they weren’t the Vongola.

“Little brother, you're  _strange_.” He laughed. He couldn't help it.

“I'll tell you the whole story one day, sis. But the other reason I can't be Decimo is I'm teetering on the edge of bonding with Xanxus. And that's going to be an unholy mess when it happens. And accountancy is fun; you can ruin someone without even breaking a sweat.” He’d had to get good at accountancy to save their Family, and he’d learned to find it entertaining, especially given how few of his peers were any good at hiding their money laundering. (At least a dozen of the petty Dons had fallen to him stealing their ill-gotten gains and donating them to various charities.)

Isabel blinked, stupefied. “ _Xanxus_?! I thought you were about to tell me that you were going to marry Aria when you were old enough!”

“No, no, no. She knows who she's marrying. He's one of her Guardians, but he has no idea yet and she has no intention of telling him until she’s old enough to marry him. But she's seen them together and they're happy. And I'm not straight, 'Bella. Really, really not straight. I even asked Aria and she won't tell me who he is, but I've got a very possessive Cloud in my future.” His lips quirked in amusement at the thought of being chased by Kyoya.

“You're  _eleven_.” He doubted she meant to sound so dismissive of who he was, but he did kind of understand why she was.

“And he's there in  _every_  variation of the future Aria looks at in some way or another. And I'm perfectly content with that, because she also said we're  _happy_. That's precious 'Bella. Especially for those of us who are Flame Active.” Shamal made a sound from where his head was buried in 'Bella's hair.

“A Giglio Nero telling someone the Future willingly? Your sister is right; you are strange, Dino Cavallone. And surprisingly okay with walking in on your sister with someone.” The doctor had stopped trying to hide and had his arms wrapped around her.

“You're her Mist, and better than her previous boyfriend, even if you are a bit old for her.” He answered Shamal's question honestly. Perhaps a little too honestly because - oh fuck. He ducked as Isabel threw a ball of Flames at him. 

“You're the one who told Angelo I was dating. You little -” Shamal tighten his arms around her, and he fled the room before his sister could talk her Mist into letting her go - or her Flames got any Stormier than they already were, and she started giving him flashbacks to Tiberia. And he was surprisingly alright with the Sky Flame surge when it came ten minutes later, because it meant she wasn't actively trying to kill him, and he could go and see what Valentino was up to without putting his big brother in the firing line with him.

Answer? Valentino was cuddling Colonello and Verde. Which in the case of Colonello was not something he'd  _ever_  thought he'd see anyone other than Lal Mirch do. He  _wished_  he had a camera, because that was far too cute. Especially since the Rain and Lightning Arcobaleno were glaring at each other. That spelt chaos. Reborn grade chaos and he was tempted to cackle maniacally.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Dreaming of Friends](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13323456) by [MoonRaven1412](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MoonRaven1412/pseuds/MoonRaven1412)




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